Kneeling to receive -- pride or reverence? HELP.

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Perhaps this quote from Pope Benedict XVI might help the OP:
At this point we cannot forget the beginning of the “Decalogue”, the Ten Commandments, where it is written: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex 20: 2-3). Here we find the meaning of the third constitutive element of Corpus Christi: kneeling in adoration before the Lord. Adoring the God of Jesus Christ, who out of love made himself bread broken, is the most effective and radical remedy against the idolatry of the past and of the present. Kneeling before the Eucharist is a profession of freedom: those who bow to Jesus cannot and must not prostrate themselves before any earthly authority, however powerful. We Christians kneel only before God or before the Most Blessed Sacrament because we know and believe that the one true God is present in it, the God who created the world and so loved it that he gave his Only Begotten Son (cf. Jn 3: 16). We prostrate ourselves before a God who first bent over man like the Good Samaritan to assist him and restore his life, and who knelt before us to wash our dirty feet. Adoring the Body of Christ, means believing that there, in that piece of Bread, Christ is really there, and gives true sense to life, to the immense universe as to the smallest creature, to the whole of human history as to the most brief existence. Adoration is prayer that prolongs the celebration and Eucharistic communion and in which the soul continues to be nourished: it is nourished with love, truth, peace; it is nourished with hope, because the One before whom we prostrate ourselves does not judge us, does not crush us but liberates and transforms us.
The Holy Father spoke these words last year in his homily for the Solemntiy of Corpus Chrirsti, where he renewed the practice of having communicants receiving Holy Communion from him to do so kneeling and on the tongue. Thus, the Holy Father did not consider this move a matter of pride; rather, he gave a solid explanation why it should be done.

Now, regarding the manner of receiving our Lord whether on the tongue or in the hand, no one can force you as far this is concerned. Even His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo said as much when he addressed the issue of swine flu for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Unfortunately, the letter is no longer up on the website, but, I believe it was quoted in a swine-flu related thread.
 
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